We serve to serve… and sometimes (not always) get thanked.

Many of us today are too busy to ‘help others out’. We are up to our eyeballs in work, responsibilities and stress. It’s not that we don’t care, we just don’t seem to have the time. I’m not different. Yet for the past 30 years, I’ve tried to give back to my profession I love so much. I carved out time for events and to mentor new speakers, supported our local speaking organization by paying my dues 5 years in advance and like many others, showed up at every meeting I could make. Sometimes these activities get you a ‘thank you.’

At the Asia Professional Speakers Association Annual Convention this month, I was the first ever recipient of the Spirit of Service Award, awarded by the Asia Professional Speakers Singapore (APSS). My association recognized me for my chairmanship of the APSS inaugural Raise Your Game public service programme with raised $40,000 for cancer victims. They thanked me for an on-going spirit of giving and mentorship to the association, the profession and mentorship to numerous speakers in APSS.

Michael Podolinsky CSP thanking the members at the APSS Annual Convention, at which he emceed.

“As a founding member of APSS and Senior Advisor to the Board of Directors of APSS, his tireless effort has proved invaluable to the Board. He was the first person living in Singapore to become a Certified Speaking Professional and currently sits as co-chair of the CSP Council of Asia.” said APSS President Tim Wade.

This year I am celebrating my 30th year in professional speaking and my 22nd year in Singapore where i resides with my family as a PR.

Thank all of YOU for reading, for supporting me by recommending me to speak at your conventions, to come in and conduct training and by sitting in the seats at the 2,890 programs I’ve conducted. God bless you all.

Smile Maker Thought for the day; Take the time to help mentor someone today. The person benefitting most will be the person doing the mentoring.

Most of us work hard to be successful and where does this ‘success’ take us? What is the end result of all our hard labour?

I heard Dave Chappelle, a comedian who WALKED AWAY from a $50,000,000 USD contract say, ‘Success takes us where character cannot sustain us.’ Wow. Is he right? Does everyone climb a ladder to some level of achievement until they finally cannot cope morally or emotionally with where they arrived?

We know in the Peter Principle, people rise to their own level of incompetence. That is, they keep getting promoted for doing a good job until they finally achieve a position they cannot handle well and then get ‘stuck’ there.

BUT, do we rise in life to a level we can no longer ethically handle? In essence, working hard to eventually commit moral suicide? My take is both ‘yes’ and ‘no’.

YES: If the success we seek is all OF this world. That is, the pursuit of money, fame, riches, power and the like, eventually it will consume us. Living in and for what this world has to offer will eventually lead us to make choices of low moral value. Learning what the world teaches us will get us more of what the world offers us.

NO: If the success we seek is for eternal glory and to be of greater service to God and humankind, this pursuit carries with it a morality implicit in the action. The joy of sharing and giving go hand in hand with the accumulation of wealth, not just an afterthought once the ‘wealth’ arrives.

This brings us to the real question for this week. Are you pursuing success defined as riches and a large bank account?

OR

Do you seek success defined as a life focused on love, relationships, achievements for the good of humanity and a lifetime invested in learning, growing and sharing?

As the second one builds strong character and the first is devoid of character, I conclude that what Dave Chappelle said is probably correct for most people, but not for all.

What are YOU building your life around and what is YOUR main focus?

Got comments or questions about success? Just leave your comments to the blog post.

My grandpa Anton was a brusk man with little finesse. He migrated to the USA by himself at age 16 so he had no adult role model from mid teens until he died at age 87.

My father was the oldest of 3 sons. Grandpa Anton never had any toys growing up so he never believed in toys for his sons. My grandma Katy, however, one day bought my dad a small toy for 10 cents but with strict instructions, ‘Hide it before papa come home.’ One day he forgot and grandpa Anton found it.

‘Vats dis?’ he asked. My dad said, ‘It’s my toy.’ Grandpa Anton’s response was, ‘Foolishness!’ and threw it into the wood stove so at least it would add to the heat in their cold Minnesota home.

My dad, Tony, bought my sister and I a lot of toys but never spoiled us. He was a hugger and full of fun. He improved SO MUCH from his father in one generation. What dad did NOT do was spend one-on-one time with us. He was also gone most of every week as a travelling salesman. The real and intimate time I spent with my father before he passed away at age 88 was as an adult when I took HIM on trips and had him move in with ME.

Myself, I work hard to spend quality and quantity time with my kids and my wife every day. We spend one-on-one time together and family time together. My wife and I do not spoil the kids but strive to give them all the love and discipline they need. Yet, I know I have my weaknesses. What really scares me is what I do not know about myself. What things am I saying and doing that will forever get my children to wish, ‘If only papa had…’ For I, too, want to make quantum leaps in improvement like my father did from his father.

My son carries the burden of improving over me to his son, and so on.

Learning Lesson: Rather than waste time complaining about what your parents did or did not do or what your boss and organisation does or does not do, look at what they did or do right and be grateful.

Next, think of all the things you can do differently with your family, your work team, your department. You cannot fix anything in the past. You cannot always fix your parents, bosses or company. You CAN and SHOULD fix communications, systems, processes and invest your time where it makes the most sense. These things you can control. What a wonderful use of the time you have been given in life.

Each generation has an obligation not to repeat the mistakes of the previous generation. Each generation has an obligation to do the best they can with what they have been given.

Almost everyone has heard of Time Management. Most people desire better time management. But what IS time management? It’s more than just getting the most from each hour in a day. Since Alan Lakein defined “Time” as “Life” 40 years ago, we’ve understood that Time is the essence of our lives. Waste time and we are wasting our lives.

It just occurred to me, after 30 years of sharing that Time Management is LIFE MANAGEMENT. This is significant as it reframes the goal of Time Management. Time Management gives us a framework for giving us what we need to do with our lives and IN our lives. More than just how we interact at work, home and in-between, it is what we do internally, in our minds as well. What we think, how we dream and how we plan.

In coming weeks we’ll share more on how you can live a better life by managing your life from the inside out; Thoughts, Plans, Goals, Action Steps to Success. Don’t miss the next few weeks!

Smile Maker: Obedience

A father asked his children at the end of the week, “Who has been the most obedient and did everything your mother asked all week?”
The son answered, “You daddy!”

Got comments or questions about time management? Just leave your comments to the blog post.

Today, Singapore Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Mr. Lee Yi Shyan said Singapore is giving $86 million SGD ($69 million USD) to boost the retail sector’s productivity 25% by 2015. The money will be pushed into the process, people and service with automation being the key emphasis.

While I applaud the effort and the amount of money for our small city state, I question the push to automation VS. true eduction and development of retail workers. If local stores benchmarked against Nordstroms in the USA where daily education and motivation prior to store opening about products and service standards is the norm, our retail workers in Singapore are woefully ill equipped. That is not the fault of the employees.

Retailers, manufacturing, banks, insurance companies, property agents all get sent to training, mostly on an ad hoc basis. We see at SIM the numbers of attendees soar in Q3 & Q4 when budgets need to get used up and drop like a stone in Q1 & Q2 when money is gone or there is ‘still time’ to execute training.

The key is DAILY training. DAILY reminders. DAILY discussions. DAILY pep talks. DAILY targets. DAILY leadership by example. Where to find the time for such a shift? Fewer LONG meetings. Fewer text messages. Fewer emails. Fewer interruptions. Fewer fault findings and blaming. MORE fixing by those who cause the problems to learn through doing.

Spending money is great. Automation when appropriate is wonderful. But I rarely buy on-line or from a machine. I buy most often from knowledgeable people who engage me and in whom I share reciprocal trust and respect. People who know the benefits of what they are selling, how to share those benefits and care about other people.

My new McGraw Hill book, “Productivity: Winning In Life” due in June 2011 shares how every individual can become as productive as possible, achieve their goals, lower stress levels and get home on time. Stay tuned for further announcement.

Got comments or questions about productivity priorities? Just leave your comments to the blog post.

Time Saving Tips For Busy Professionals Like YOU!

Here are some very SIMPLE ways to save a ton of time every day:

Time saving tip #1:  Delegate more!

Prioritize your work A, B, C with A’s being the MUST be done activities…those you were HIRED to do. B’s are the SHOULD be dones, like the stuff that keeps us legal or allows us to get/keep our ISO 9000 certification. C’s are the NICE to be dones. Once you have done this, delegate most of your Bs and almost all your Cs to someone who is capable of doing them. What if you only were able to offload an additional 29% of your work, would it be worth doing? Sure!!! 29% solution.

Time saving tip #2: Toss stuff!

’I might need this someday.’  NO WAY! Toss it out. 85% of what is in file cabinets will never be referenced again. Toss it out. If you can find it on someone else’s database. Toss it out. If you can get it with a phone call. Toss it out. If you can locate it on the Internet, toss it out!

Time saving tip #3:  Be more productive!

No busy. Every idiot who works anywhere thinks he/she is ‘busy’. They move aimlessly from task to task; exhausted by the end of their work day. NEVER confuse busy with productive. Productive means you spend 80 to 90% of your time on you’re A’s priority tasks. Is that how you spend YOUR day? If not, stop being busy and get productive.

Say NO to C and low B tasks until every A is completed.
Start living life with PURPOSE and towards your ultimate goals in life.
Live life with PASSION to be your best.

These 3 things may seem simplistic, but the simple things in life are usually the truths of life. Love your family. Live your life. Praise your God. Be content while striving to be better. These are simple things. Difficult to attain but within everyone’s grasp. Within YOUR grasp. Go for it!

Got comments or questions about time saving tips? Just leave your comments here.

Into the classroom where I was speaking, walked a young deaf girl with an interpreter. Her interpreter was signing or translating my words into sign language for her.

I looked at the young girl and signed over to her, `Hi. Sorry I sign slowly. I am a big dummy. YOU are a beautiful lady.` I had dated a deaf woman for 3 months and learned some basic sign language. What I told her was about all I could remember.

She was so surprised and signed `Thank you!` back to me. From there I proceeded to share my talk…

After the presentation, her interpreter came up to me and said, `I need to speak to you in private for a moment.` I was so nervous. Had I made the wrong sign?

The interpreter shared… `She always felt different in this class being deaf. But today, you made her feel special. You really changed her life.`

WOW! That was it. I felt my heart swell and my energy went up 100-fold. I had always talked AT people. I had never, to my knowledge, changed anyone’s life before. Amazing!

I went home after the talk… and erased all my financial goals on my chalkboard. I replaced them with this single statement of what I was to do with my life. `I will serve God and humankind, and the success and the money will follow.`

Guess what? It did!  From that moment on, everything was different. Instead of focusing on what I could get FROM a client or an audience, I focused on CHANGING LIVES. Once the focus was on service, those who needed the service started flocking to me…

Over time, my Quest statement evolved. Today my Quest is, `To positively influence one BILLION people in my lifetime, for the greater glory of God.` Now THAT gets me out of bed in the morning.

QUESTION: What gets YOU out of bed in the morning?

Got comments or questions ? Just leave your comments here.

PLEASE, never feel bad about this. We all do our best and should to make our contribution to society and to earn an income for ourselves and family. Just remember precious little matters and stop fretting and worrying. Ask yourself, in 5 years, who will care? If the answer comes back “No one.”, then maybe you should not worry NOW. Do your best. Get it done with your best effort in 8 or 9 hours and go home.

If you have living parents, spouse or children, do THEY matter? Maybe invest more time with them. If you believe in God and eternity, maybe invest more time with Him in conversation (prayer) and devotion (good works). Our life should count for something. It just can’t count for everything. Strive to focus more on what does matter and less on what does not. As a Christian, I was struck this week by how precious little of my time was devoted to serving Him or my family and how much was just doing ‘stuff’.

Here is how I am changing and you may wish to make your own list.

1. Worry about nothing as worry fixes nothing.
2. Reaffirm your priorities (mine are Jesus, Family, Fitness, Finances and Friends in that order)
3. Make everyday count in terms of your priorities investing time according to your priorities.
4. Fun should come automatically by following your priorities. If it does not, maybe your priorities are wrong.
5. Analyze every day and every week to ensure you are getting the most from your investment of time.

Remember, precious little of what we do matters so make what does matter a higher priority by investing more time in it.

Smile maker: Funny thoughts and quotes

• An optimist is someone who falls off tall building and halfway down says, ‘So far so good!’
• If you can’t see the bright side of life, polish the dull side.
• We know the speed of light but what is the speed of dark?
• When I die, I’m leaving my body to science fiction. (Steven Wright)
• If your parents never had children, chances are you won’t either.
• A day without sunshine is like, well, night.
• When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.
• Don’t judge a book by its movie.
• Why do people say “With all due respect” when they’re about to show no respect at all?
• Only the wise and foolish never change
• The law of heredity is that all undesirable traits come from the other parent.
• If you wish to live wisely, ignore sayings including this one.

Got comments or questions ? Just leave your comments here.

Most of us live out our lives without ever being attacked or robbed. That is not the case for everyone. Although attacks can happen anywhere, most rapes occur within one’s home and most robberies occur out of your home city. We need to be aware about keeping ourselves and our families safe and secure WITHOUT getting paranoid and limiting our enjoyment of life. For more than 30 years I taught women’s self-protection and practised the martial arts since 1970.  Here are 8 quick self-defence tips for home and abroad.

1:  Never let strangers know you are leaving for a holiday or that you will be home alone (especially females). A woman allowing a workman or a male friend into her home should ask him to keep his voice level down as her brother, the kung fu master is taking a nap at her place prior to his tournament.

2:  Before going shopping in busy markets, leave your wallet, purse, jewellery and watches locked in the hotel safe and only take with you what you absolutely need. I carry local currency in my two front pockets, with small notes I plan on spending in the right pocket and larger bills and maybe a credit card on the left front pocket. Each stash of money has smaller notes on the outside and the larger ones on the inside. Never count money openly on the street.

3: Travel with a friend(s). There is safety in numbers. Thieves are opportunists. They look for easy targets. Always make yourself look like a harder target to steal from.

4: Be aware of anyone asking for favours, directions or help, particularly if they look local and you look foreign. It can be a rouse to get close to you or to distract you while someone else comes from behind to rob you. If approached, automatically take a 360 degree check of your surroundings.

5: Do not take a taxi you hire on the street. Thieves steal taxis to pick up tourists and then drive them to where accomplices help rob you. Go to any hotel and have them call a taxi for you.

6: If a robber confronts you with a knife or weapon, give them what they want. Reach in your right front pocket (all your small notes) and throw it at him. While he is grabbing the money, you flee.

7: NEVER go to a secondary crime scene. That is, if the robber wants to take you somewhere else, refuse. Few people come back alive from a secondary crime scene. Better to give up all your money and fight back there (if necessary) than to lose your life in a remote location.

8: If you are attacked, do not waste your time in a fist fight unless you are strong and a good boxer. The human body is a mass of frailties. Do not pull back. Get as close as you can to the attacker, even hugging him. This neutralises his force. Then do one or more of the following: Jam two fingers into his eyes HARD (blinding him). Cup your hands and slap his ears HARD (breaking the ear drums). Press two fingers into that hallowed area under his Adam’s apple HARD (causing him to choke). Stomp HARD on the instep of his foot (breaking his foot). Then run away.

Sorry this is not a motivational column this week. It IS an important one for you and your family. Knowing what to do for self-defence at home and abroad may be the best way to make sure you never need to use our last tip. May you and your family always be safe.

Why in the world do people fail in communications?  There are probably as many reasons as there are people.  The common communications problems which keep surfacing revolve around a lack of openness, honesty and understanding the nature of our problems.

Here are three communications traps people fall into and accompanying tips to avoid the pitfalls.

The “I’m right, you’re wrong.” syndrome.  In this pit, it is assumed there is a right and a wrong answer.  It is also assumed you and an opponent are on opposite sides of an issue.  “Good” examples are a boss telling an employee he/she is crazy, that their idea would never work.  Another example is a husband and wife arguing because one wants to have a large family and the other wants a small family.

In the first example, the boss should probably put herself in the employees shoes.  To do so requires a lot of imagination or a good memory for what it was like “long ago” when she was in that position herself.  No one is crazy for making a suggestion, even one which appears inane.  What the boss might want to do is tell the employee of certain obstacles she is aware of and then ask the employee how they might be overcome.  If none can be provided, the employee has proven to himself the idea is impractical at this point in time.  If, however, the employee does come up with some plausible solutions, maybe the manager has learned something and should reconsider her position.

In the second example, the wife says she wants a large family and the husband insists on a small one.  What they are not communicating is the wife’s concept of a large family is four children and the husband’s idea of a small family is three.  By not talking specifics, they do not realize just how close their positions really are.

“What if large meant 12 children and small meant 2?”  Now we need to ask “why”.

The spouse wanting 12 may want that many because of a need to share love with so many wanting children.  The spouse wanting only 2 may only feel they can financially afford to support 2 kids.  Solution?  Perhaps have two of their own and take in 10 orphan children.  The orphan children come with a state stipend to support them financially and they probably are craving for love and attention.  Both parties again have tenable positions.

Trap two is “shutting the trap.” When something is bothering folks caught in the web of this spider of poor communications, they do not open up their mouths.  They keep it to themselves.  Sometimes they blab about the problem to everyone except the person who should hear (the person they have the problem with.)

Such a state of affairs causes two major problems.  First, it is not healthy.  Tensions bottled up leads to heart attack, stroke and at a minimum, fatigue.  Second, nothing ever gets resolved and the problem festers and just gets worse.

Solution:  Confront the person you are having a problem with.  Maybe it was just an oversight.  Perhaps there exists a logical reason for doing whatever it was they were doing.  At the very least, get it off your chest!   Chances are the other person is either totally unaware of what they are doing or they are hiding something too and do not have the guts to come to you.  Try to be one step ahead of their game.

The last pitfall we can cover in this article is “the front.” We all, at one time or another, try to put on a front.  We attempt vainly to cover our true meaning, emotion or how things really are.  We try to smile when sad, laugh when in pain and act cool when we swell with emotion.  I am probably as guilty as anyone of this pitfall.  Bottomline here, just strive to be yourself.  Chances are, people like the real you better than the phony one anyway.